Through the keyhole, Nairobi style

House hunting has been a major preoccupation for me for the last couple of weeks in the hope that we can find somewhere affordable that we want to live, that is near enough school and work (an important factor given the traffic and wider road safety issues), has enough out door space for the children to run around in and for us to make the most of the climate here and is secure enough. We will inevitably need to compromise somewhere on this wish list but have not yet reached family harmony on where - the boys would much prefer a vast acreage of wilderness to run around in and build a football pitch than their parents' apparently dull worry about the cost of building, maintaining and electrifying suitable perimeter fencing. They also have a fondness for some of the very bling finishings in the newer properties out here - huge sunken baths for every room and some extraordinary fireplaces in sitting rooms. Nearly every house I have seen has more bogs than bedrooms and any mother of sons will know the future cleaning implications, particularly in the heat.

So I'm still looking. I've seen about 20 places so far, across the whole spectrum of 3-4 bedroom options from an exquisitely decorated, immaculate, massive (and unaffordable but they didn't make that clear from the outset) place with manicured garden through to a collapsing 3 bed bungalow in a wilderness garden which would take months of work to make good. And loads of very new builds where the houses are massive, and not to our normal taste (but we are only renting) and the gardens minuscule and unacceptable to the kids (and us). Heres a flavour of those that merited pictures.....

There are a couple of places which would suit us so fingers crossed one will come off in the next few weeks. And in the meantime, it's quite fun getting a sense of how wealthy people here choose to live and it's a good way of learning my way round. It's also giving me some interesting insights into the way society works here, both in terms of the very informal networks that are used to link tenants to owners - I have more numbers in my phone now for random folk who are in some way linked to people who might have a house available than I do any other group - and the layers of people involved in making any deal, all with their cut of the commission most of which is not at all transparent. In some cases it's not at all clear that they are even showing me a house that is going to be available but it's all a learning experience and I'm getting quite adept at filtering out most of the dross or repeat viewings on the phone. And, comparing notes on my brother's house hunting in North London where he observed that there is not much around and everyone seems to have got very greedy so crazy asking prices, I realise that some things really are truly global.

And for now we are still very happy in our central apartment where life is very easy.


And looking forward to the Easter holidays, although Katie is a little anxious that if the Easter bunny comes too late in the day his chocolate will all melt! Have good recipe for hot cross buns in afore mentioned baking handbook. Now just need to source Easter eggs......
Anne

Sleeping in the trees

We decided it was time to show the kids that there is more to Kenya than a busy congested city so last weekend we headed off to the Rift Valley, staying in a lodge near Lake Naivasha. Naivasha is about 90 minutes drive from Nairobi and the right side of town to head off straight from school pick up and so wake up in the calm of the forest on Saturday morning. So it's a popular weekend destination for Nairobi dwellers and holiday makers alike.

Leaving Nairobi's suburbs it starts to feel rural pretty quickly and green too, despite the fact the long rains have yet to appear - the precise timing of their arrival is subject to much debate in the press just now. The kids were almost as excited to see cows, donkeys sheep and goats as they were feeding giraffe the week before. Just as thrilling was the news that we would be staying in a tree house. And trying to spot this kept everyone going for the final short in distance but long in time stretch of our journey - a 4x4 is strongly recommended for the final 11kms and having done the journey in our Japanese saloon hire car we could see why, but where's the challenge in having the right kit for the job?

We had a lovely weekend walking through a bird filled forest and playing in streams. Like all our family walks, collecting treasure was an essential part of the experience - strange shaped sticks (that doubled as weapons in the sky landers type game the boys are currently designing), shiny black stones, feathers, flowers and some Africa specific finds - wild cotton for Katie and Matthew's prize find of a porcupine spine. There was also plenty of time for chilling at the tree house. This was an impressive two storey structure in the trees with a fully functioning kitchen (when the generator was on), a veranda with tree growing through it, two baths - Matthew was intrigued by the physics of supporting full tubs but I thought it best not to dwell on this question - and beds for 8.

We enjoyed watching the monkeys in the next door trees (although Tim and I were a little surprised when they woke us early on Sunday morning jumping across the roof), spotting the tiny local deer and looking out for hippos in the river below. We saw plenty of fresh footprints on our walks but not the real thing. There were a couple of night drives too, courtesy of an ancient Defender where we came across a herd of Buffalo going for an evening drink - our first of the "big five" and they were indeed big. I was very glad to be at a distance and high up.

I suspect that the boys were as impressed by the Defender as the Buffalo. They are fully engaged in the debate about what car/vehicle to get out here and have hours of Top Gear viewing to draw on. I have suggested that as and when we return to live in the UK we might drive back and our night drives solicited long lists of things we would need to take with us. Jamie is very seized with this idea and has had his head in the atlas planning the route. He has yet to find one that would be entirely advisable but there is plenty of time yet - I think this theme will run and run.

We headed back to Nairobi relaxed and very dusty, to Matthew's observation that the weekends seem longer here than in London. All agreed that we would return and next time we might even see the lake. And we will make plans for more exploring weekends out of town (with photos!). This weekend though has been a very mellow one in Nairobi, with birthday parties, swimming and meeting people over a very relaxed walk and lunch. A great way to recharge batteries for house hunting next week - my experiences thus far make a tree house outside Nairobi a very appealing option!

Anne

Mums, Muffins and little misses

I thought I might have a slightly more domestic feel to this blog, just to underline an observation from my great friend Andy earlier this week that the preoccupations of our two family lives are pretty much the same no matter that we live in very different parts of the world. So here's a very familiar flavour of my week - getting everyone up, breakfasted and off to school and work on time with the right gear, snacks, drinks etc and then home again at the end of the day, the odd playground chat, keeping on top of the mounting heaps of washing, treating cuts and bruises and ear infections, negotiating sibling disputes, finding missing toys, socks, bits of sports equipment, making sure the kids have gifts to take to birthday parties, keeping the fridge suitably stocked, sorting supper for all, helping with homework, reading bed time stories - Katie and tim are working through the entire little miss collection and Matthew and I are really enjoying David walliams (as is Jamie when he tears himself away from his own book)


Of course there are some differences in the way I tackle the above. There is a cafe at school so playground chats sometimes come with latte and toast. Household shopping takes longer as I don't now where to find stuff and I'm still very unsure what some of the local fruit and veg are or how to begin preparing them - my questions to the grocer have been answered by "your house boy will know" but all my boys are as baffled as me. Similarly, baking is my default response to tackling the appetites of growing kids who are doing masses of exercise and come out of school ravenous but until our stuff arrives I'm working with a much reduced stack of kitchen equipment. And I'm indebted to my former team for the pocket cook book they gave the kids just before we left and for directing me to a couple of handy baking websites - although my iPad screen protector doesn't fare so well as I try and flick through the recipes with flour covered fingers. Without any fairy cake tins, my muffins come out a bit sprawling but these orange and Lemmon ones disappeared in moments. Luckily there is a pool near by to help keep the muffin tops at bay.

Anne

G is for giraffes in pictures

Despite seeking and being offered advice on line, from friends who are regular bloggers and my it literate brother I'm still not quite there with photos. But here are the giraffes we fed 10 days ago. The photos I've taken using my proper digi camera will need various leads and connectors to share with the world but I'll keep trying with my iphotos.

G is for giraffes and grenades

Both were features of this weekend in Nairobi. The grenades were thrown at a bus station, killed six people and injured over 60, were the main news story for a day or so but haven't really touched our life here (or apparently that of most people living in Nairobi). There are a few more men in uniform wandering around with large guns (which isn't in itself particularly reassuring for me!) but otherwise it would be tricky to spot a reaction. Whether that's because death (particularly in connection with busses given the state of the roads and the way they are driven, maintained and always over crowded) is more part of everyday life is hard to tell. In complete contrast the giraffes were gentle and beautiful, living at a small centre in Karen (a rural and relatively affluent suburb of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen of "I had a farm in Africa" fame). The centre was set up to protect the endangered Rothschild Giraffe - did you know there were different varieties of giraffe? I didn't. It has a viewing/ feeding platform where you can get up close and personal with these lovely creatures. I baulked at putting a piece of carrot between my teeth and being "kissed" by the giraffes as they retrieved their snacks, as (I'm glad to say) did Tim and the kids. But we had lots of fun having carrots nibbled from flat hands and holding out small branches so the giraffes could strip off the leaves. I took a couple of snaps which inspired me to work out uploading photos to this blog. It looks straightforward with some intuitive functionality built in to the system. But after a frustrating morning I've decided that I'm either lacking in intuition or the functionality is lacking. So Im seeking some technical advice from fellow bloggers and I will try and add the pics in later. There was a nature walk too but it was the height of the afternoon sun (having spent the morning at some local cricket nets - looks like sport will be just as big a part of our life here as it was in London!) - so we decided to leave that for another day and headed home for a swim. Everyone is doing lots of swimming - its my alternative to cycling and the kids swim once a week in a school pool and most evenings after school to cool down. Matthew is keeping a tally of the distance he has covered. I'm not sure of its accuracy and suspect an element of double counting but it's motivating him to keep going as, I suspect, is the 8 year old girl who is a stronger swimmer than him and is often in the pool swimming alongside (and ever so slightly in front of) him. Makes me smile.

International women

Have been enjoying local and I tern atonal media coverage of some truly amazing African women to mark international women's day. Check out: http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Portrait+of+determination+/-/1218/1360600/-/cj76dgz/-/index.html for one such woman. Gender is clearly an issue in the region, more so in some places than others, but it's far too early for me to begin to understand how it plays out in urban Nairobi let alone Kenya. There are very few MPs or high profile female role models in the press and most of the stories I read or hear about women involve widows or divorcees battling for access to their hisbans' assets - although that may of course mean that I've stumbled on Kenya's equivalent of the daily mail rather than be a true reflection of society here. Ad whilst here is SMS focus on some completely remarkable women who do amazing things I suspect it's the every day challenges faced by women and girls here where the true story lies - limited acces to education, the pressures of bringing up family and growing up in poverty, high unemployment and limited state infrastructure. I'm very aware that I'm in no position to comment and run the risk of sounding naive or patronising or just missing the point But it's a issue I hope to better understand through our time here. Anyway, to mark the day I thought I would share the story of a woman who I met today. She is a 29 year old from rural Kenya, the eldest of 12 children with a mentally ill mother and a father who left home when she was 13. She graduated from high school and came to Nairobi looking for work - college fees were prohibitively high so that wasn't an option for her. She now has a secure job that she enjoys in the relatively affluent centre of Nairobi, a place on her own to live (3 busses and a 2+ hourly commute each way to work) and she sends most of her monthly earnings ome to support her mum. She's very happy with her life and I was very impressed and paused to think about all the other women around the world with stories like this. In my own current very small world I've already come across some truly international women, albeit the relatively privileged ones Ive met in the school playground and in my daily life buying groceries, starting to set up our life and enjoying an occasional coffee. Like London, whilst there are of course dads and male careers at the school picks up and men working in the shops and plenty of blokes drinking coffee, this aspect of life in Nairobi is predominantly a female world.

Week one

We made it to Kenya last week and thanks to all our friends and family who helped us get here. With our 230kgs of luggage - a few life essentials till our main shipment arrives in a couple of month's time - we squeezed into various people carriers and navigated airports pretty successfully, not losing any child or bag along the way. And having landed on Monday morning and spent the day gently acclimatising, we got straight into the swing of our new life on Tuesday with Tim going into work and the kids heading off to their new school - a British school in sw Nairobi where the similarities (same syllabus, biff, chip and kipper books, big write on Friday - Matthew is gutted - football dominating break times, school lunches which could be nicer) only highlight the differences (kites swooping down to take unbeaten snacks at play time, sun hats mandatory for all outside time, friends from completely new parts of the world, contact rugby in 25 degrees full sun, houses named in Swahili after 4 of the big 5). But the school has a very gentle vibe and the kids have all settled in straight away - the journey home (through truly grim Nairobi traffic which everyone warns you about in advance but probably has to be experienced to fully understand)is full of news and things learnt that day. Lessons we have all learnt in week 1: ~ the tooth fairy DOES come to Kenya ~ homework is done much more quickly when it's followed by an afternoon swim ~ that diary of a wimpy kid is the most popular book with year 5 boys at our school here as well as in London ~ N'duvo means elephant ~ matatus (the minivans that provide public transport) are best avoided on the roads but quite fun as the name of the game year 1 plays in pe ~ there are some amazing butterflies here - we have yet to go looking for other wildlife ~ how to get BBC World Service ~ the difference in cost of DS games here compared to London - James is now quite proficient with currency converter and amazon browsing ~ a little bit about the geography and demographics of Kenya - with thanks to year 3 for Matthew's fact book So much more to learn in the weeks ahead....including how to upload photos onto this blog. But that's for future posts.